Manali

Wetter and warmer than Leh, Manali at 3.000m was surrounded by apple orchards and pine forests. Everywhere the landscape was green instead of the usual brown. We quickly tee’d up another trek and off we went this time with two Irishmen and unusually a young Indian woman guide, plus the ubiquitous cook and pony man and his mountain ponies. We climbed through deodar forest, then rhododendron scrub, finally alpine herb field to a pass at 4600m. Descending steeply down into a valley scarred by roads and a hydro-electric scheme, we reached a village called Malana, where the people believed they were descendents from Alexander the Great and superior to any-one else. We wandered around - litter strewn everywhere, open drains and an obvious disregard to sanitary conditions. Visitors were not allowed to touch the villagers, their houses or livestock, on pain of a 1000R fine, perhaps it was just as well. However it was fine to take photos of them and their homes and healthy green crops, and they were keen to sell us their craft and produce.

Moving on we had another scary bus ride to Delhi, a mad driver with one hand on the wheel and the other on the horn, slithering through an active mudslide in one place that had closed the road the previous day. Dehli was hot, smelly, dirty and filled with scammers as well as being a major construction site; we couldn’t wait to get away to the cool, clean airport.